Draft 2 of 802.11n Standard Sails Through

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The IEEE Working Group approved Draft 1.10 of the increasingly popular 802.11n standard this week, with 83.4 percent voting to accept what will (later this month) officially become Draft 2.0 when it is submitted to the IEEE 802.11n committee.

What it means is that the wireless networking technology standard which has faced numerous hurdles in the past, is now one step closer to completion with the standard’s core technology pretty much fixed at this point.

The major changes this time around involved the implementation of the 40-MHz channel, which was tweaked to accommodate older 2.4-GHz band devices that could be confused by the wider channel bandwidth.

Version 2.0 of the spec also calls for the use of two 20-MHz bands that will allow the system to scan a given environment for legacy devices that might not understand the wider bandwidth. If such a device is found, the 802.11n device will defer and send data over only a single 20-GHz band.

While data throughput would be slowed down if sent through a single 20-MHz channel, 802.11n’s multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology, which uses multiple transmitter and receiver antennas for increased data throughput, will give still give the Wi-Fi spec faster performance regardless.

During the remaining year, the draft’s text will undergo further reworkings and adjustments to address some of the more than 3,000 comments the latest round of voting produced before it is officially approved, the IEEE said.

After that, the next stage in the process will be yet another sponsor ballot followed by more revisions to Draft 2.0. At this point, however, any suggested changes are expected to be relatively minor as is evidenced by the 83.4 percent approval margin announced by IEEE 802 leadership during the Orlando Plenary.

Following those changes, Draft 3.0 is expected to emerge in late 2007 and gain approval by early 2008. The IEEE says Draft 3.0 will, for all intents and purposes, be the “final 802.11n” in all but name, and that the final spec is now expected in April 2009.

With the new approval of Draft 2.0, the Wi-Fi Alliance is also expected to begin officially certifying equipment as “Draft 2.0-compliant.” Again, the IEEE notes that Draft 2.0-compliant gear will be guaranteed to be fully compatible with the final (2009) 802.11n standard.

Earlier this year, manufacturers and hardware makers began ramping up production of laptops and routers supporting 802.11n. In late January, Apple released a series of hardware and software updates through its Web site that took advantage of latent 802.11n compatibility in some of its of notebooks and desktops.

Apple also debutedits new 802.11n AirPort Extreme Base Station at the MacWorld Expo in January.

Similarly, Lenovo’s new ThinkPad T60 Widescreen also features a draft 802.11n wireless card from Atheros, and companies like Buffalo and D-Link all started announcing a wide array of networking gear that will include the current 802.11n spec that this year’s CES.

The 802.11n wireless spec promises realistic throughput speeds of approximately 130 to 200 Mbits/s and will have an approximate range of 165 feet.